Rambling Through Scripture

In this chapter we see three major sections. 1. God’s promise to those who keep his laws. 2. God’s curses for those who break his laws. 3. God will remember his promise. These are fairly straight forward when we look at this passage. We are blessed and reward because we obey God’s laws. We are in his favor. If we choose to disobey his laws there are consequences for disobeying. The consequences increase the more one refuses to deny God and walk away from him. What shows God is the same yesterday, today, and forever is the showing of grace and mercy he has. This was not a new concept because of Jesus coming we find an example of his grace in verse 40 through 46. God says that if the people will repent, confess their sins and humble themselves he will remember his promise to Abraham. Look at the end of this chapter. We see that though he forgives them there are still consequences for their sins. We often think that because we ask God to forgive us that he should immediately relinquish t...

In this chapter we are in general dealing with three sections. The year to honor the LORD, the Jubilee for the land and the jubilee for the people. The over lying them that I see in this chapter is that we must remember who’s we are and who truly owns all that we have. The year to honor the LORD was the first year that they were in the promised land. For this first year they were not to harvest. For the next 6 years they could harvest as normal. The seventh year was to be a year of Jubilee for the land. They were not to harvest or plant during this year. It was to give the land a time of rest. It is similar to working for six days and resting on the seventh. In this case it is a larger scale for the land by working the land for six years and letting it rest in the seventh. There are many other things connected to this year of Jubilee to include returning land to the one you got if from. The reminder that the Israelite did not have a permanent home but they were travelers with their onl...

Chapter 24 is divided into two sections. Section one is dealing with the duties in the tent, specifically dealing with the bread and the lamps. Section two deals with various types of punishment for various types of offenses. Most of the section deals with what requires capital punishment. The bread was to be made in a specific way with specific ingredients. The purpose of the bread was to be set aside as holy and was to be eaten only by Aaron and his sons. What strikes my interests the greatest is the fact that the lamps were to be remained lit from dusk to dawn. Providing a physical light in the physical darkness. Possibly a analogy to spiritual light in a spiritually dark world. Though I am glad that we live under grace and not under the law there is a part of me that can’t help but consider what kind of world would we have if we held to some of the laws. Specifically considering some of the punishments for ones actions spoken of in the second part of the chapter. We have a...

Leviticus 23 has three sections, “The Day of Worship,” “The Spring Festivals,” and “The Fall Festivals”. The first section is short dealing with the Day of Worship. It is simple guidance the Israelites are to work only six days and on the seventh day they were to rest. To do no work it is the LORD’s day of worship. As I consider the two festival seasons we can look at the details of each of the festivals in detail but I am not sure that is what is important here. I think what is important is the purpose of the festivals. As I read through these it is about celebrating God and worshipping him. Giving him the thanks and glory for the harvest along with seeking forgiveness for sins. Application We may not do the festivals as they had them then but we need to keep a Sabbath. It is difficult in this day and age for many people to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday. Some, depending on their faith see the Sabbath on Saturday but even that is difficult to at times celebrate. I believe it is impor...

This chapter deals with both the animals that are acceptable for sacrifice and the guidelines that were put in place concerning the eating of the priest’s share of the sacrifice. When the sacrifice was brought to the priests a portion was given to them, kind of like pay. Since the priests only job was to serve in the temple they had to “earn a living” and thus they were given some of the sacrifice. What is of specific importance in this chapter is found in verses 31 – 33, “Carefully obey my commands, I am the LORD. Never dishonor my holy name. I will show my holiness among the Israelites. I am the LORD, who sets you apart as holy. I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.” Application Look at these verses what do you see. I see that we are to carefully to obey God’s commands. We are not to dishonor his name. He will show his holiness. He sets the Israelites apart as holy. He brought them out of Egypt. Notice that it is about God not about us. We...

This chapter involves the holiness of the priests and remaining holy and clean in order to come into the presence of the LORD. As I read through the list I am glad that we are bound by grace and not the laws because if we were bound by the laws then I would not be acceptable for the priesthood. The thing to remember when you read this is that though this was directed at a select group of people and we can also apply this chapter to modern day ministers and use it as a reminder that ministers are to be set apart as holy and are held at a higher standard than others because of being God’s representative to the people. It is kind of like when I was a military police officer. As a keeper of the regulations we were expected to not just adhere to the regs but to exceed the regs where we could. For example not just shine our boots but spit shine them. Ministers have a requirement to be holy. Not holier than thou type but holy to the LORD because they are God’s representative. Here is the catc...

When you read this chapter consider that fact that if it was not for the grace of God we would still be in this situation. People being killed for their sins. Instead Jesus died for all sins. This does not give us the right or okay to go out and practice these sins. The point is that God was making the Israelites to be a separate holy people. He was distinguishing them from those they were with and those who’s land they were going into. Look at some of the sins listed. God is making a point of the seriousness of the sin and specifically these sins. We may not put people to death for these sins anymore but it does not mean that they are less important. We have God’s grace. There is those that mistakenly think that God is less concerned about the sin. God does not change. If it was a sin then it is a sin now. Verses 22 – 26 speaks about being holy as God is holy. To be a separate people. There should be a difference between the Israelites and the other people. Application As ...

This chapter can be summed up in verse 2 and verse 37. Verse 2 says, “…Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.” Verse 37 says, “Obey all my laws and all my rules, and live by them. I am the LORD.” In between these two verses are guidelines given by God divided into, Duties of the people towards God, Duties of the people toward each other, and other duties. In the midst of all these duties there is one that I want to focus in on. This is found in verse 17. It says, “Never hate another Israelite. Be sure to correct your neighbor so that you will not be guilty of sinning along with him.” We are not to turn a blind eye to what others have done. We are to be involved in their lives, especially when we know they are Christians. It is kind of like watching a crime take place but not reporting it, or being willing to be a witness to because they don’t want to be involved. When we turn a blind eye to what others are doing we are just as guilty in the sin. Application The appli...

It is interesting how much sex is actually mentioned in scripture both in the positive and the negative. As we go through the Bible we will look at the different aspects concerning sex. Unfortunately society both Christian and secular, has put a negative connotation to sex. Sex was created by God for both enjoyment and procreation. The catch is that sex is meant to be enjoyed within boundaries that are set by God. The Bible teaches that of any sin, sexual sins are the worse because they hurt the body and the spirit. Leviticus 18 lays out some of these guidelines. We see in the first few verses that God tells the Israelites once again that they are unique. They are not to live like the Egyptians where they came from nor the Canaanites where they are going. Verse 5 says, “Live by my standards, and obey my rules. You will have life through them. I am the LORD.” We can simply look at the results of having sex outside God’s standards. HIV, AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, the list goes ...

We have two sections in this chapter. The first deals with people doing individual sacrifices and the other has to do with eating blood. Up to the point of the temple many people were in the habit of doing their own sacrifices. Once the temple had been set up God commanded that this practice was to end. All sacrifices were to be done at the temple. Any one that killed an animal for a sacrifice anywhere but at the temple they were guilty of bloodshed and were to be excluded from the rest of the people. It was almost like murder. The second part of this chapter had to do with eating blood. We understand this even better in light of Jesus’ death upon the cross. People were not to eat blood. Blood is life, as we know it both physically and spiritually. If someone eats blood God will exclude them from the people. The final part of this section has to do with what I will refer to as road kill. God commands that no animal that dies of natural causes or is killed by another animal i...

As I read the beginning of this chapter I am saddened for Aaron and the other Israelites but also realize how blessed we are because of Jesus. Chapter 16 starts off talking about the Aaron’s sons that came into the LORD’s presence and died. Verse 2 we see that God tells Moses to tell Aaron that he cannot go into the holy place whenever he wants. If Aaron does he will die. God then gives guidelines of what he has to do to be able to go into the holy place. Special clothes, a sacrifice and if this is all done correctly he then can go into the holy place. Can you imagine having to put on special clothes and then giving a sacrifice just to enter into God’s presence. We enter into God’s presence weekly, without special clothes and without bringing a sacrifice. I am afraid sometimes we take the fact of entering into the holies of holies too lightly. I am not saying that we have to be all stiff. God ask that we come as we are but many times we come into his presence flippantly. When ...

Today’s devotions is of a sensitive nature and so I recommend caution in sharing this devotion. There are some things in the Bible that causes one to say why do we need to talk about this? Leviticus 15 is one of those that caused me to ask that question. It also caused me to say gross. We find in this chapter a discussion about discharges from male and females. We see that with the male it is dealing with discharges brought about by both disease and that of discharge of semen. For female it is dealing with the normal discharge caused by a period and one of excessive discharge not related to a woman’s period. Obvious care should always be taken when dealing with discharges caused by disease. Modern science gives us reason for discharges from the male. The most common reason for a discharge from a male is because of a sexual transmitted disease. This type of discharge is unclean because of the disease but is also because the most common cause for it is because of it being a sexually tran...

At the end of chapter 14 we find the purpose of chapter 13 and 14 is to help distinguish between what is clean and what is unclean. Chapter 14 is dealing more with the outcome once a person or an item has been declared clean. The first two thirds of the chapter deal with the requirements to be considered clean. What an individual is to bring to the priest for a sacrifice once it has been determined they are clean. In reading this chapter you will see that there is two different requirements concerning an individual found clean of a skin disease. The second requirement is for those that are poor and cannot afford the requirements that were laid out in the first section. The final section of this chapter deals with two things, the requirements once a home is declared clean and what to do if the house is unable to be declared clean. In the case of the house not being able to have the mildew removed the whole house is to be scraped of plaster and removed. Interesting much like one would ha...

Leviticus 13 deals with two issues, skin diseases and mildew on clothing and leather. In both of these we can look from the our position and say no kidding in dealing with the treatment of such things as mildew and skin conditions. We have modern science that tells us that skin conditions can be contagious and that mildew on things is unhealthy. They did not have that luxury back then. They simply were unsure of what to do with those things and so God set out a law to protect the people from things that would harm them or kill them. When you consider mildew there are some mold that for some people just breathing it in let alone touching it can cause such breathing problems that it can kill them. There are skin diseases such as mrsa that is spread easily and can be very deadly. This is not about exclusion as much as it is about staying clean and holy to the Lord, even physically. The Application How do we apply this today. I see two very important applications one being the physical asp...

A short chapter with a large punch. Don’t see many sermon or discussions on this chapter. I think many ministers, especially male ministers. Why, because we are dealing with a controversial subject of why there is a difference between the length of time that a woman is unclean for a daughter and the length that she is unclean for a son. The ultimate thing that this stirs up is why is a woman considered unclean in the first place. I in fact was not necessarily looking forward to addressing this chapter. I pray that I have addressed in the best way possible that brings understanding and glorification to God. Let’s deal with the fact of the woman being unclean because of this. What we have here is the spilling of blood. For this reason alone it was considered to be unclean. As I began researching this subject to understand why a woman was considered unclean and bring understanding to this chapter I found an interesting thing, much like some of the other laws there is a medical conditions...

Leviticus 11 discusses the clean and unclean food that the Israelites are allowed to eat. Instead of discussing the types of food I want to consider the why more than the what. Why were there laws about the foods to be eaten or not eaten? These laws have probably been more debated and discussed than any of the other laws. Many people have adjusted their diet to more resemble these foods. The assumption is that by holding to these original food laws I am going to be closer to God and healthier. It can be debated about being healthier or not. We know that through modern science that many of these animals can be dangerous if not handled correctly. Shell fish are scavengers and pigs if not slaughtered and handled correctly can cause poison to be released throughout the pig and thus be harmful to us. With modern science also comes knowledge on how to safely prepare some of these foods that were once forbidden. We can see in the New Testament that some of the forbidden foods in the Old Test...

We see in Leviticus 10 the importance of doing what God says to do. In the first part of this chapter we see two of Aaron’s sons took it upon themselves to offer incense to the Lord. They did not follow the instructions that were given concerning offering incense. The immediate result was that they were killed instantly by fire from God. The bodies were removed from the tent and Aaron and his remaining sons were instructed to not grieve the death of these two sons. The Israelites were allowed to grieve but Aaron and his sons were not. We see in verse 8 and following we see the first instructions to priests being the teachers of God’s word. Aaron and his sons were to teach the Israelites concerning all the laws that God had given. We also see here that no wine or liquor were to be drank when they went into the tent of meeting. The chapter closes with Moses being upset with Aaron for not offering a goat for the sin offering. Moses found out it was burned instead of eating it in the holy ...

In chapter 9 we have Aaron performing his first sacrifices. In reading in through this chapter we see somewhat of an on the job training taking place for Aaron and his sons and Moses walks them through the steps required for each type of sacrifice. When these sacrifices are done they are done with the whole congregation in place observing for the sacrifices were also in order to cover their sins. Probably the most important thing in this chapter is at the end. In verse 23 Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meetings then came out and blessed the people. At the end of this verse we see that the LORD’s glory appeared to all the people. We see in verse 24 that fire came out from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar. When all the people saw this they bowed before the LORD. Why is this significant? It shows to the people first God’s acceptance of the offering. Secondly it shows that these requirements were not just Moses coming up with the...

Chapter 8 is the dedication/ordination ceremony for Aaron and his sons as priests of the Israelites. The thing to see as you look at this chapter is the significance of the preparation and the ceremonial cleaning. This is an in-depth process that began with Moses washing Aaron and his sons. Once washed they were then clothed in the white linen robes. After this cleaning the animals were slaughtered for the sacrifice for sins, a burnt offering and finally for the ordination offering. The final step of this process was that Moses sprinkled some of the blood on the priests dedicating them and their clothes to the Lord. He also took some of the blood and put it on the right ear lobe, right thumb and the big toe of the right foot. After all of this they cooked the meat and at it and the bread from the ordination offering. The priests were than instructed not to leave the tent of meeting for 7 days for it will take 7 days to complete the ordination process. They were to serve night and day d...

I am going to forgo the study on Leviticus today. What I want to talk about today is relationships, specifically marriage. I may have spoke about this before but it is heavy upon my heart again. De’Dee and I are involved in a study on Wednesday evenings where we are working through the study based on the movie, “Fireproof”. Tonight we watch the movie. What a powerful well made movie. If you have not seen it I recommend it to you. Based on that fact I wanted to talk to you today about marriage. Ephesians 5 says the following: 21 Place yourselves under each other's authority out of respect for Christ. 22 Wives, place yourselves under your husbands' authority as you have placed yourselves under the Lord's authority. 23 The husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. It is his body, and he is its Savior. 24 As the church is under Christ's authority, so wives are under their husbands' authority in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives as Chri...

I have to admit that I have not actually looked at Leviticus in my life time as close as I am looking at now. There are some powerful things that we miss out on when we choose to skip through the book of Leviticus. Some things that I found in chapter 6: 1. Sinning against God by failing to do your duty 2. Lying to your neighbor about something you were supposed to take care of or lying about something that was stolen or seized from your neighbor is a sin. 3. Finding something that someone lost and lie about it under oath, or commit any other sin like this. Aside from instructions of taking care of the fire on the altar which was to never go out, the rest of chapter 6 and 7 deals with aspects of the various offerings that we already discussed from other chapters. Don’t take that to mean they have little values or importance for discussion or understanding to the offerings and sacrifices as a whole. They provide greater emphasis in the purpose and the care for the offerings. In going thr...

The more that I look at this book what I realize is how blessed that we are that we don’t have to bring an animal sacrifice for the various reasons. I have come to appreciate the old Hymn that said Jesus paid it all. This book has a sacrifice for just about anything and everything. Chapter 4 deals with the offerings for unintentional wrong doings. What grasps me in this chapter is the realization that whether you intended to commit a sin or not you are still guilty. Many times people will simply say I did not mean to as if that is supposed to mean that they are not guilty and thus forgiveness from those they sinned against and from God is not needed because it was unintentional. As we see in this chapter the intent is not as important as the fact that a sin has been committed and forgiveness needs to be sought after. Chapter 5 deals with other sin offerings. I think what is interesting in this chapter is not the sins offerings but what the sins are. Verse 1: “…if you are a witness und...

Chapter 3 deals with fellowship offerings also known as peace offerings. The fellowship offering was an optional offering that could be used as an offering of thanksgiving, to fulfill a special vow, or as a freewill offering. The only animal that could be eaten by the Israelites was one that was offered as a fellowship offering. We see in other places in scripture that if an animal was slaughtered but was not offered as a fellowship offering it at the tent of meeting was guilty of shedding blood. (Leviticus 17). Blood and the fat was God’s. So if anyone wanted to have meat for dinner they were to first offer the animal as a sacrifice to the LORD. We see twice in this chapter that it says about these offerings of being food. There are animals that were offered for fellowship offerings, cattle, sheep, and goat. There were slight differences in each but the general offering was of throwing the blood against the altar and removing the fat, the two kidneys and the lobe of the liver as the b...

Leviticus, to many of us we skip over this book. For many lawyers and people that are about rules this book is intriguing. For most of us we just simply want to know why should we be concerned about a book on the law because Jesus came to fulfill the law? The fact is that the Bible says that all scripture is important for us. That said as we go through Leviticus the greatest challenge we will have is to avoid getting bogged down in the weed of this book. To avoid being bogged down we will consider larger chunks as we go through this book. Leviticus Chapter 1 and 2 In these chapters we are going to look at the burnt offering of cattle, sheep or goats, and birds along with uncooked grain offerings, cooked grain offerings, other ingredients, and offering of the first grain harvested. The thing to realize is that each of these offerings were treated differently, the bold areas are the major difference between the animal offerings. Burnt Offering of Cattle 1. Male with no defects 2. Offer...

Let’s all celebrate together. 1, 2, 3, YEA!!! We have reached the final chapter of Exodus. For me the celebration is twofold, 1. As much as I enjoy doing a study on each book sometimes it can seem that the book does not end and that can get mundane. I pray that I have been able to keep the studies interesting for you. The second reason is that we get to get into a new book to study. Chapter 40 is divided into three sections. Section one is verses 1 – 15 deals with the instructions for setting up the tent. Section two is verses 16 – 33 and deals with actually setting up the tent. The final section is verse 34 – 38 and here we see the LORD coming to the tent. Section 1: We see a specific time and order of setting up the tent in this section. God instructed Moses to set up the tent on the first day of the first month of the year. God then lays out the order of the setting up the tent through the washing and dressing of the priests. Notice in the setting up of the tent includes the anointi...

Chapter 39, just like the previous two chapters speaks of things that were discussed earlier when God was giving instructions to Moses. In this case we see the description of the priestly garments. There are five sections to this chapter the first four sections deal with the priestly garments, the remaining section deals with all the items being brought for Moses to inspect. As I did with the last two chapters I will show the corresponding chapters and then hit the highlights of what I find of importance. 1. The Holy Clothes: 39:1 (Exodus 28:1 – 5) 2. The Ephod: 39:2 – 7 (Exodus 28:6 – 14) 3. The Breastplate: 39:8 – 21 (Exodus 28:15 – 28) 4. Other Clothes: 39:22 – 31 (Exodus 28:31 – 43) What is different in this chapter that is not in the previous chapter is the descriptive detail of how they created the clothes. Take a look at the verses dealing with the Ephod. The detail work that had to go into creating the cloth and creating this piece of clothing, it is amazing. Specific is the fa...

We are speeding through Exodus 37-38. I caution you that I don’t want you to think that these passages are not important but we have dealt with the things in these chapters earlier. 1. The Ark: 37:1-9 (Exodus 25:10-20) 2. The Table: 37:10-16 (Exodus 25:23-30) 3. The Lamp Stand: 37:17-24 (Exodus 25:31-39) 4. The Altar for Incense: 37:25-29 (Exodus 30:1-5) 6. The Altar for Burnt Offerings: 38:1-7 (Exodus 27:1-8) 7. The Bronze Basin: 38:8 (Exodus 27:9-19) 8. The Courtyard: 38:9-20 (Exodus 27:9-19) Some interesting facts out of these two chapters, or at least I find them interesting. 1. Verse 37:34 – the lamp stand and all the utensils were made out of 75 pounds of pure gold 2. Verse 38:8 – The basin and its stand were made out of the bronze mirrors given by the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meetings. 3. Verses 38:21 – 29: An inventory was taken of the material used. a. Gold: 2,193 pounds (approximately over 1 ton) b.Silver: 7,544 pounds (Over 3 tons) approximately one fi...

We looked at Exodus 36:1 – 2 when we looked at Exodus 35. We start this section in verse 3. Chapter 36, aside from the first two verses, can be divided into two sections. Section one deals with a problem that many pastors would love to have, that of excessive contributions. The second deals with the construction of the tent. I don’t know a pastor out there, especially in the middle of a building project, which would not want to be in the position Moses and the craftsmen were in. We see that in verse 3 that every morning people continued to bring freewill offerings every morning. The offerings had gotten so numerous that the craftsmen had to stop working and go tell Moses to tell the people to stop. It was not until Moses said something that they stopped. What a moving and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. The second section describes the construction of the tent. Verse 8 to the end of the chapter corresponds with Exodus 26:1-37 where we see God describing how the tent is to ...

This section is matched to Exodus 31:2-6. In chapter 31 we see God telling Moses who was going to be the skilled craftsmen in charge of building the tent of meeting. In this section we have Moses bringing the people together and telling them that Bezalel and Oholiab were going to be in charge of all aspects of crafting the tent of meeting. We see in this passage that there are others involved in building this tent. Aside from the people bringing their gifts other craftsmen would assist. Notice that both of these men are talented in all types of trades and crafts. They were skilled craftsmen. It appears in this passage that Bezalel is going to be the chief craftsmen guiding the rest in the construction of the tent. We get a hint of Oholiab’s other reason for being chosen. Look at verse 34, it says that along with being a skilled craftsman he also had the ability to teach. So as I look at this Bezalel was going to oversee all construction and Oholiab was going to teach those that were no...

In chapter 35 the prep work is done. All the directions have been given to Moses and it is time to put God’s plan into action. This chapter is divided into three distinct sections I am going to look at the first two sections in this devotion and the third section the next time. Verses 1 – 3 deals again with the rules about the Day of Worship. Verses 4 – 9 deals with the peoples contributions of their wealth. The third section deals with the craftsmen for the tent this section extends from verse 35:10 – 36:2. We have in the first part of chapter 35 another emphasis on the rules of worship. At this point in our devotions you should have begun to see a theme when it comes to the Sabbath. It is a day set aside as holy. A day that is to be a day of rest. A precedence was set by God in the opening verses of Genesis when where we find that God rested on the seventh day. We have seen it mentioned a number of times in Exodus and we see it once again mentioned here. This will not be the last tim...